Does ChatGPT spell the end for travel writing?
/
Could the coffee shop office even be under threat from artificial intelligence?
Unless you don’t use the internet or you’ve been living under a rock, then you will at least be familiar with the name ChatGPT.
ChatGPT is the web’s newest toy, has taken the online world by storm and, to put it in simple terms, is a chatbot. When you ask ChatGPT what it does, it gives the following response:
“I am ChatGPT, a large language model created by OpenAI. I’m designed to understand and respond to natural language questions and prompts from users.
“I was trained on a massive dataset of text from the internet using a transformer architecture, which allows me to generate human-like responses to a wide range of queries.
“Whether you’re looking for information, trying to complete a task, or just looking to chat, I’m here to help!”
Whilst reviews have been mixed, ChatGPT’s popularity is undeniable. Just three weeks ago, Reuters reported that it “is estimated to have reached 100 million monthly active users in January, just two months after launch, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history.”
Some people love it and have been quick to praise its benefits. For some it’s lightened workload, for those doing research it has been able to simplify information pulled in from multiple sources, and its customer service benefits in the long term will surely make it a worthwhile investment for businesses across the world.
But it’s not all positive. Universities and schools have been ramping up their efforts to review assessments as the AI tool (quite brilliantly) has been utilised by students looking to make their assignments and homework a little easier, Google have started to feel threatened, and even a judge in Colombia used ChatGPT in a controversial ruling.
But there’s also a lot to worry about when it comes to authorship, especially in my field – travel writing.
For those who are freelancers or creators who have travel blogs or even a magazine column, an artificial intelligence program with this level of public backing can appear dangerous.
Sure, there are benefits. You can use it as a research tool, get it to expand on ideas you have, suggest alternative ways to word things or even generate ideas for your next article.
But whilst those can be quite useful and have benefits that make your own workflow less painful, there is the big worry that ChatGPT – or something similar – could replace travel writers all together.
It’s a conversation point I’ve seen pop up a few times on Twitter recently and whilst it is turning heads, many have started dismissing its conquering abilities as text is “robotic and repetitive,” and that mistakes are frequent, amongst other things.
Whilst I’m inclined to agree with the above, the current state of travel writing is not as it once was. In general, the art has become much less about creativity over time thanks to search engine optimisation, with writers having to craft pieces for keywords and page speed, rather than producing exciting pieces filled with fascinating stories and anecdotes.
On a recent trip to Thailand - but are all my notes and observations now redundant thanks to ChatGPT?
These days, you’re much more likely to see a listicle or a matter-of-fact blog post about a destination than you are something genuinely interesting. And that’s not because writers don’t want to, but it’s because SEO is king, and it’s a monarch that prefers checked boxes to genuine quality.
As the AI starts to learn, it will also become stronger, so to speak; mistakes will reduce and writing will get closer to a natural feel.
Should we start to worry? Perhaps a little.
AI will never fully replace humans, because most people need to work and earn money. If artificial intelligence has all the jobs, then the world won’t go round.
However, it could help streamline processes of travel media companies. How long until editors start commissioning work that is essentially tidying up a ChatGPT piece? Will this mean lesser fees for writers who would’ve originally created them from scratch?
Then there’s potential traffic loss for those with website and blogs. SEO requires less human creativity and more algorithmically-influenced practicality – how long will it be until something like ChatGPT can churn out page-after-page of information that has the ability to rank well on Google?
It’s hard to decipher the impact of ChatGPT and its competitors on the future of travel content creation. I hope it isn’t detrimental to the thousands of us that put in time and effort to generate a quality output. But I guess those that’ll survive are the ones who will figure out how not to view AI as the enemy, but how they can leverage it for their own benefit.
I’ve got one of the busiest Aprils of my life with travels to Africa and continental Europe, but what am I going to do with a travelless summer?